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This error allowed you to get any game for free

This summer, a hole was discovered in Steam's distribution service that allowed anyone to generate activation keys for any game so that you could get all games in practice for free.

Category:Microsoft

Got $ 165,000 to discover the gap.

This summer, a hole was discovered in Steam's distribution service that allowed anyone to generate activation keys for any game so that you could get all games in practice for free.

Error in SteamworksIt was Security Advisor Artem Morkowsky who discovered the gap in an API belonging to Steamworks, a platform for game developers where you can get help publishing their game on Steam.

The API that is applicable is that developers should give the players who purchase the products the ability to enable it before installation, but it turned out that you could access any CD keys by using specific parameters.

Compensated by SteamFor example, Morkowsky managed to generate 36,000 copies of Valve's own Portal 2, but the gap was not limitless and you could use it to download any game. Steam compensated the security researcher with $ 20,000 (over $ 165,000) to report the mistake.

It is uncertain how long it has been possible to trick up games this way in advance of the disclosure and whether people have used the method.